The Most Hopeful Place on the Internet: The Last Words of Texas’ Death Row Inmates

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June 30, 2013 // 02:49 PM EST

There isn’t much to say about this. Though, if you can click through the Texas Department of Criminal Justice’s Death Row Information page and come out of it on the side of capital punishment, we probably have vastly different views on justice and people in general. That is unfortunate, I think.

In any case, one of the first I clicked on was this: “I'm talking to each and every soul in this building, in this room. I don't hate nobody, you're doing what you think is your job.” Those are from Carl Blue, who was executed in February of this year. He was convicted for setting his ex-girlfriend, Carmen Richards, on fire. Blue claimed it was accident after turning himself into the police, and apologized to the victim’s daughter, Terrella Richards, before the execution.

This one, however, from Ricky Lynn Lewis, executed this past April for a 1990 rape and murder, will stay with me for weeks: “I love ya'll and thank you for the love you gave me. I respect all of ya'll. Ms. Hilton. Ok. Let me rest. It's burning.”